Commenting on Ed Miliband’s speech to the Labour Party conference yesterday, Caroline said:
“This was clearly a well delivered speech, one that contained many values I support.
“However, in many key areas there could have been much more ambition, or a commitment to taking the necessary action. So for example, he rightly criticised the coalition again for protecting the wealthy rather than working families, but said he’d stick to their spending limits.
“Of course, he was right to recognise fuel bills as a major issue, but a two-year freeze isn’t going to make it go away in the long term. The mechanics of this are going to be interesting – for example, what happens in May 2017? What will stop energy companies from introducing a massive price hike then?
“The fact is that need to see a sustained programme of action to drive down energy bills into the future, not just over the next two years. That will require a green energy revolution, with grants for home insulation, and measures to make homes super-energy efficient in the long term. A massive investment in energy efficiency and renewables – could reduce bills for millions as well as creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, and getting carbon emissions down too
“It was also good to hear Labour embracing Green Party policies, like lowering the voting age. But Miliband was disappointingly quiet on other areas – crucially on privatisation of public services. Obviously I’d have liked him to have got behind our call for the railways to be brought back into public hands.
“On house building, previous commitments from Labour come to nothing. The last time they were in power, the housing crisis got progressively worse. In their spring budget in 2009, only £100 million was provided for council housing – enough to secure about three council houses per consituency, at a time when more than 1.5 million households were on council waiting lists. Addressing the housing crisis means not just building new homes, but also ensuring that we safeguard people’s basic right to adequate housing. There needs to be radical reform of the private rented sector, with more secure tenancies and stable rent controls.”
“Business rates are one of the biggest expenses facing businesses in Brighton and Hove – especially the smaller ones, who are disproportionately affected, particularly after the large inflationary rises over the past couple of years. SMEs form the backbone of our local economy, and I welcome the fact that Ed Miliband has pledged to cut business rates, but he needs to go further and reduce the VAT threshold for SMEs as well. When I met with the Federation of Small Businesses in Brighton last week, I undertook to push for the Government to do this. I've also called for more small businesses to be eligible by increasing the cut off point for rate relief to a higher rateable value. This would come at a cost to the Treasury, but it’s a progressive, fair approach and the costs could be met if the political will is there.”